What survey templates does TIPS offer?

TIPS ships five transportation-specific templates: Transit Rider Satisfaction, Microtransit / On-Demand Demand Study, ADA Paratransit Experience, Commuter Mode-Choice, and Route Realignment Feedback. Each is a complete survey — questions and answer choices included — written around a real transportation research goal. New templates are added over time.

How do I create a survey from a template?

Open Survey Templates from your dashboard or the Surveys page, preview any template to see its questions, then click "Use this template." TIPS instantly creates a new survey in your account with all questions and options in place. The new survey starts inactive, so nothing is collected until you review it and activate it.

Can I change a template after I create a survey from it?

Yes — a template is just a starting point. Once created, the survey is fully yours: reword or remove questions, add new ones, attach your branding, add map questions tied to your boundaries and routes, and translate it into any language. Editing a template-created survey is no different from editing any other survey.

Does using a template count against my plan's survey limit?

Yes. A survey created from a template counts toward your plan's survey-definition limit exactly like a blank survey or a copied one. If you are at your limit, TIPS will prompt you to upgrade your plan or delete a survey you no longer need before creating another.

When should I start from a template instead of from scratch?

Start from a template when your goal matches one of the included use cases — rider satisfaction, demand, paratransit, mode choice, or a service change — and you want a best-practice draft fast. Start from scratch when your study is highly specific or map-centric, since v1 templates use standard question types and do not yet include map questions.

Do templates include map questions?

Not yet. The first set of templates uses standard question types (multiple choice, checkboxes, rating scales, and text) because map questions depend on the boundaries and routes specific to your agency. After creating a survey from a template you can add any of the four TIPS map question types yourself. Map-based templates are planned for a future release.

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Jump-Starting Your Survey with Templates

The blank page is where good surveys go to stall. TIPS templates hand you a complete, transportation-specific survey to start from — so the question becomes "what do I want to change?" instead of "where do I begin?" Here's what's in the library, how one click turns a template into a working survey, and how to make it your own.

TL;DR. TIPS includes five ready-made transportation surveys — rider satisfaction, microtransit demand, ADA paratransit, commuter mode-choice, and route realignment. Preview one, click Use this template, and TIPS builds a complete survey in your account (inactive until you activate it). Then customize it like any other survey: reword questions, add your branding, map questions, and translations. Templates count against your plan's survey limit.

Why start from a template

Most transportation surveys ask many of the same things. A rider satisfaction survey needs frequency, on-time performance, cleanliness, safety, and value questions whether you're a small transit district or a big-city authority. Reinventing that from scratch every time is slow and easy to get wrong — a missed neutral option here, a double-barreled question there.

A template removes the blank-page problem and bakes in survey-design good practice, so you spend your time on what's specific to your study rather than on boilerplate. For an agency running its first study, it's the fastest path from sign-up to a fieldable draft.

The template library

Every template is written around a real transportation research goal, with the questions and answer choices a planner would actually field.

Transit Rider Satisfaction: Measure overall satisfaction, rate key service attributes (on-time performance, cleanliness, safety, value), capture likelihood to recommend, and ask what would most improve the experience. Your bread-and-butter customer-satisfaction survey for fixed-route service.
Microtransit / On-Demand Demand Study: Gauge interest in on-demand service, the trip purposes and times of day people would use it for, preferred booking method, and price sensitivity — the evidence you need before standing up a zone or a pilot.
ADA Paratransit Experience: Assess booking ease, pick-up on-time performance, trip length, driver assistance, and whether riders' accessibility needs were met. Built around the service quality that matters most to paratransit riders.
Commuter Mode-Choice: Understand how people get to work or school today, what keeps them from using transit, and which improvements would actually shift their behavior — the core of any travel-demand management or mode-shift program.
Route Realignment Feedback: Collect public input on a proposed route or schedule change: whether respondents use the route, their level of support, how the change would affect their travel, and open comments — a clean record of community input for the decision file.

How it works: one click to a working survey

Templates live behind Browse templates on the Surveys page, the Start from a template tile on your dashboard, and the empty state when you have no surveys yet.

Preview first. Every template has a preview that lists all of its questions and answer choices, so you can confirm it's the right starting point before you commit.
Click "Use this template." TIPS creates a complete new survey in your account — every question and option in place.
It starts inactive. Just like importing a survey, a template-created survey is not collecting responses until you review it and turn it on. Nothing goes public by accident.

Under the hood, a template is the same portable survey definition that powers export and import — which is also why your own surveys can be moved between accounts.

Make it yours

A template is a starting point, not a finished product. Once the survey exists in your account, everything is editable:

Reword, add, or remove questions. Treat the template's questions as a first draft and tailor them to your service, your terminology, and your decision.
Add your branding. Logo, intro copy, and a privacy statement from your Branding settings carry into every survey.
Add map questions. Drop in any of the four TIPS map question types tied to your own boundaries and routes — see Choosing the Right Map Question Type.
Translate it. Offer the survey in every language your community speaks, with one combined dataset.
Tighten it for completion. Apply the principles in Building Surveys That Get Completed — order, required fields, page breaks — before you launch.

Templates and your plan limits

A survey created from a template counts toward your plan's survey-definition limit, exactly like a blank or copied survey. If you've reached your limit, TIPS will let you know and point you to upgrade your plan or remove a survey you no longer need. For how those limits work across your account, see Managing Quotas and Overage.

When to start from scratch instead

Templates are the fast path when your goal matches one of the included use cases. Start from a blank survey when your study is highly specialized, or when it's primarily map-driven — the current templates use standard question types, because map questions depend on the boundaries and routes unique to your agency. You can always start from a template and then add map questions yourself; map-based templates are planned for a future release.

Common questions about survey templates

What survey templates does TIPS offer?: TIPS ships five transportation-specific templates: Transit Rider Satisfaction, Microtransit / On-Demand Demand Study, ADA Paratransit Experience, Commuter Mode-Choice, and Route Realignment Feedback. Each is a complete survey — questions and answer choices included — written around a real transportation research goal. New templates are added over time.
How do I create a survey from a template?: Open Survey Templates from your dashboard or the Surveys page, preview any template to see its questions, then click "Use this template." TIPS instantly creates a new survey in your account with all questions and options in place. The new survey starts inactive, so nothing is collected until you review it and activate it.
Can I change a template after I create a survey from it?: Yes — a template is just a starting point. Once created, the survey is fully yours: reword or remove questions, add new ones, attach your branding, add map questions tied to your boundaries and routes, and translate it into any language. Editing a template-created survey is no different from editing any other survey.
Does using a template count against my plan's survey limit?: Yes. A survey created from a template counts toward your plan's survey-definition limit exactly like a blank survey or a copied one. If you are at your limit, TIPS will prompt you to upgrade your plan or delete a survey you no longer need before creating another.
When should I start from a template instead of from scratch?: Start from a template when your goal matches one of the included use cases — rider satisfaction, demand, paratransit, mode choice, or a service change — and you want a best-practice draft fast. Start from scratch when your study is highly specific or map-centric, since v1 templates use standard question types and do not yet include map questions.
Do templates include map questions?: Not yet. The first set of templates uses standard question types (multiple choice, checkboxes, rating scales, and text) because map questions depend on the boundaries and routes specific to your agency. After creating a survey from a template you can add any of the four TIPS map question types yourself. Map-based templates are planned for a future release.

Ready to skip the blank page?

TIPS gives you transportation-specific templates, a full survey builder with map questions, multilingual support, and board-ready reporting — everything you need to go from sign-up to insight.

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Putting this to work

TIPS is the survey platform behind everything described above. These two pages cover the part most relevant to what you just read.

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